HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Eddie Johnson

The dictionary definition of King is “a male sovereign”, “a chief among competitors”. My definition is “The Man, unstoppable, pure and close to perfection in the art of dominating”.

LeBron, you are not that yet and if you don’t start to work on your deficiencies you will be removed from the title of King that should not have been bestowed upon you at such young age – especially when we still have Kobe Bryant, who is the best player on the planet.

I really love your upside. I think you have the ability to become one of the best players in the history of this league. I also think you have a chance to become one of its biggest failures.

Here’s why…

LeBron, you refuse to work on the most difficult part of the game. I have no clue who your shooting coach might be, but he has not helped you.

I still see the same mistakes in your jumper that I saw when I watched you during those ESPN high school games. The Pistons have studied film and they know your weaknesses. They have exploited you and sadly you and your team are slowly fading away because of it.

The Pistons have decided to pack the paint so deep with defenders that you have no choice but to shoot or pass. You have decided to pass, which has added up to 16 assists in the first two games. The problem is your team needs you to score and the Pistons have thrown the kryptonite at you and it’s working.

LeBron, in order to become a player like Air Jordan or Kobe Bryant you must master the skill that set those two apart from everybody else. MJ and Kobe had and have an unbelievable mid-range game to go with excellent free-throw shooting. With that, you wouldn’t allow any defense to stop you in your quest for excellence on offense.

Let me give you a war analogy – thus using the History degree I received from the University Of Illinois… The airplane and missile were the best inventions ever for war because they allowed you to strike from far distances and achieve great benefits without exhausting your troops and putting them in harms way consistently. The plane and the missile are also the most laborious to perfect because of cost and the time it takes to build them.

This use of weaponry softened up the defensive tactics of the enemies and made them come out in the open. Then the enemies would be taken advantage of.

That’s what the jump shot does in basketball. It forces the defense to extend itself, thus allowing you to penetrate and still achieve success – but in a more devastating and precise manner.

LeBron, you have no consistent ability to achieve that on the basketball court. I have to believe that whoever coaches you on shooting is constantly reminding you of one fatal flaw. Every time you shoot the ball, you are off balance. You are either fading away or leaning sideways. What that does is force you to shoot at a moving target. Your mechanics are not the greatest, but if you would just eliminate those off-balances flaws you would have a better result.

Think about it. All you needed was two more of those jumpers to fall and the Cavaliers would be up 2-0 instead of down 2-0. But it was obvious to me in Game 1 – when you had a layup and passed it to Donyell Marhall – that you were occupied with the thought of maybe having to go to the free-throw line and then having to hit two shots.

At the end of Game 2, you had a 10-foot jumper at your leisure over Richard Hamilton but you executed a half-hook off-balance shot and wanted a foul – which you know officials will not call to decide a game. Just look at the hit Rasheed Wallace put on noted flopper Anderson Varejao. He did not get called. (And he should have).

Bottom line with my war analogy… The planes and missiles are laborious and expensive. It takes hours upon hours to perfect the best weapon. Well, the jump shot is the same way. You need to put more quality time on perfecting that jumper or you will be dethroned.

LeBron, also please tell your coach that he will not win the series unless he rolls the dice and puts shooters on the floor. That means Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones, Daniel Gibson and Sasha Pavlovic. That might allow you to shake loose like you did for a short stint in the first half of Game 2.

LeBron, I did write an article a while ago about Danny Ferry’s big mistake: not supplying you with enough shooters. Larry Hughes was not the answer (6-22 in the series). This is not Hughes’ fault. He is just not a shooter. We saw Hughes’ awkward fade away at the end of Game 2. A real shooter would have used the glass to soften the touch on a shot like that. So because of the lack of long-range snipers, you are shooting 12 for 34 after the first two games and things look very bleak.

Your kingdom is very much exposed and taking a beating. Take my advice and toughen it up by developing that mid-range game like Mike and Kobe did and then you really will be King.

The cities of Memphis and Boston are cloudy and gloomy today. Both the Grizzlies and the Celtics went through an 82-game season and finished with the worst records, but thought victory would come in the form of either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. Well, the lotto balls had another say in the matter and they came up with Portland and Seattle. I don’t know who to feel sorrier for – the two great players or the two teams they thought would have their rights.

Portland and Seattle will offer a lot of rain, long flights and very little chance at making the huge marketing dollars that I am sure Oden and Durant had envisioned playing on the middle or the East coast. But if they are thinking basketball without the distraction of the night life, then they are on the right teams.

I do feel sorry for Memphis. Oden or Durant would have raised them back to the 50-win team they were a short while ago. Plus they have struggled for so long that they really did deserve a break. If you want me to feel sorry for Boston, though, you might have to wait a long time.

The only people I feel sorry for in Boston are coaches Doc Rivers and Tony Brown. I might feel a little compassion for ex-teammate Dana Barros, who happens to live in Boston, but that’s where it stops. These people were not a part of the Celtics when they regularly beat up and embarrassed the entire league for a decade in the 80s and early 90s. Don’t even allow me to go back further when Bill Russell helped them destroy the league.

Why on earth should I feel sorry for them?

I remember when the Celtics went through the motions with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Danny Ainge, Dennis Johnson and Bill Walton for three quarters and then took your confidence in the fourth quarter. They would then laugh and have a good time on the bench. I saw so many highlights of the party atmosphere they used to have at the end of games it made me sick with envy.

I remember Bird coming up to me before a game my rookie year and asking me, “Are you going to be guarding me? If you are, I’m going to wear your behind out.” (I changed the wording).

He did not go back on his word that night.

I remember a few years later when I already had great self-confidence and I got the best of Bird. And to add to it, I allegedly popped him in the mouth at the end of the game. He was so confident that he walked in my locker room after the game and dropped his room key on my lap and said, “Let’s finish what you started later”.

I thought about going to his room that night, but not to fight. I wanted to get some pointers on how I could be half as good as he was.

It was that confidence from Bird and the feeling you got from the Boston fans that made you hate them with envy. The Celtics went into every season worried about one team and that was the Lakers. When you beat the Celtics, they always said they didn’t play well and it had nothing to do with who they just played.

So again, why should I feel sad for the Celtics? Don’t they have 16 championships?

Yes, I understand that the players there have nothing to do with my misery, but I just can’t help myself. I always cheer for the team that is trying to get what the other has had success in.

Heck, I even root against my hometown team Chicago Bulls. I grew up watching Bob Love, Chet Walker, Jerry Sloan and Norm Van Lier. But after being destroyed and dominated so many years by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, do you think I would feel sorry for the Bulls. Last time I counted, they had six championships.

I root for Utah, Memphis, Phoenix, Cleveland, Sacramento and any team that has not won a title. I never feel sorry for any team or city that has dominated like the Celtics, Lakers or Bulls.

So here is hoping that Yi Jianlian from China can become the next Larry Bird and Bostonians can say, “Look, we didn’t need that stinking lottery pick.”

Robert Horry has been viewed as one of the best clutch players in NBA history. He has been a part of six championships with the Rockets, Lakers and Spurs. He has made a number of late-game changing shots despite not being a big-time scorer, but Monday’s might be the best assist to win a series he has ever made.

The flagrant assault Horry put on Steve Nash in the Game 4 lost against Phoenix could possibly propel the Spurs to the Western Conference championship.

In one play when the game was seemingly over, Horry could have eliminated Amare Stoudemire, Boris Diaw and limited Steve Nash if he woke up this morning bruised and sore from the cheap shot Horry laid on him. I am extremely disappointed in Horry, but the true colors of individuals will always come to light when faced with embarrassment. Horry basically acted like the guy who brings his ball to the park and didn’t get picked to play, so he takes his ball and goes home.

I understand why he was disappointed. The Suns beat the Spurs at their game and especially when San Antonio thought they had control with an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter. The problem I have with Horry is this is the precise reason why he is considered to be one of the best clutch players ever. He has broken hearts of opposing fans and sent opposing teams to the locker room with despondent thoughts after making late-game winning shots when they thought they had the game won. Now when the shoe is on the other foot, he resorts to taking out the smallest and most important player for the Suns. I wonder… If that was Kurt Thomas, would he have sent that message to him?

I must admit Horry was one of my favorite players, but only based on his unselfishness. Suns fans have never liked Horry, though, because he forced a trade to the Lakers after the Suns acquired him and Sam Cassell from Houston for Charles Barkley. I will have a hard time understanding his meltdown and why a player who had no impact or confrontation in the game causes such an uproar at the end of it.

Because of it, the Suns are in deep trouble if Stoudemire and Diaw are suspended. Stoudemire’s argument is that he was checking into the game. Well, we will see if Stu Jackson believes that argument and what he decides.

Is it fair? No way. Will it be an even tradeoff, Horry for Amare and Diaw? No way. The league has a zero tolerance policy for leaving the bench area, but they have made adjustments before and in this case they should.  If they don’t, then why shouldn’t Pat Burke or Kurt Thomas provoke Tim Duncan into a confrontation or fight in Game 5. This series is about to get real ugly and the league better set a precedent soon. We have seen some flagrant acts  get overlooked in a number of series so far without suspensions and to finally suspend  two players for doing nothing will ignite the bonfire that’s been building in every semifinal series so far.

If the Spurs are rewarded with these suspensions, Robert Horry will add another clutch moment to his career and the Suns will have to beat a very good San Antonio team in Game 5 without their top scorer. I think that, at best, is wishful thinking and the Suns would have to get a second win in San Antonio to get to the next round.

Good luck!

I thought these Golden State Warriors were immune to hiccupping in crunch time but, wow, what a choke job in Salt Lake City in the first two games. I wanted to be nice about this, but the more I look at the first two games of the series I keep saying the Warriors should be up 2-0.

I am not like Charles Barkley. I happen to love the Bay Area. I used to travel there every time I got a chance when I played for the Sacramento Kings. Right now there has to be a dark cloud over the city. The Warriors should have the decency to at least hold up the image of the downtrodden Dallas Mavericks.

Where’s the team that made plays against the Mavericks at will? But hold up… Did they?

Hmmm, let’s reflect back a minute.

Well, the Game 1 victory against Dallas was indeed a barn-burner. The Warriors held up under pressure and rode the great play of Baron Davis, but since then it’s been suspect when the games have been close.

Remember Game 5 against Dallas? The Warriors had almost a double-figure lead with few minutes left. Dirk Nowitzki went crazy and the Warriors lost composure down the stretch.

Well, here we go again. I will concede the Game 1 loss to Utah, but Game 2 was extremely disappointing. The Warriors had a nice lead late in the game and had a chance to seal the victory by executing the only thing on the basketball court where the opposing team can’t play defense: shooting a free throw.

Where is Mark Price, Calvin Murphy and Rick Barry when you need them? I know it drives me nuts when guys miss key free throws, but those guys must start throwing dishes when they see it.

Mickael Pietrus looked like he was facing a firing squad when he threw his two bricks and Davis, who is showing everyone how great a player he can be, missed one out of two and a chance to put the Warriors up three points later.

What really added insult to injury was the fact that Andris Biedrins, who might be the worst free-throw shooter I have ever seen other than Ben Wallace, made both of his to increase the Warriors lead.

This is a pattern that seems to be quite obvious and Utah has feasted on the weakness.

Keep the Warriors in a close game and you can beat them because of silly mistakes like Baron Davis not pushing the ball up the middle of the floor and instead stepping out of bounds on the sideline. This is all about fatigue. And the Warriors, who only play seven guys, seem to be tiring late in games.

So what should the Warriors do? What seems to be the answer to their woes?

Blow the Jazz out in Game 3 and 4 – which they will do. The Jazz are terrible on the road despite their Game 7 victory in Houston.

The Warriors and their crowd will be in rare form this weekend. The Warriors will ride the emotion of their crowd and abuse the Jazz and send the series back to Utah 2-2.

The Jazz might look like the better team in the series because they are up 2-0, but the Warriors have made things easy for the Jazz to grab the first two games.

Here are the keys…

The Warriors need to shut down Andrei Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur. Both players struggled on the road in the Houston series and I expect the same this time around. Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer will continue to flourish because they are fearless and Derek Fisher will cause problems with his defense.

They also need a good weekend out of Monta Ellis, who has looked intimidated and lost, to finally play like the Most Improved Player. Al Harrington has to rebound and keep Boozer off the offensive glass.

I picked the Jazz in seven games and I am sticking with it. But how can I not root for the Warriors? Although they quite frankly drive me crazy.

But I love it!

Yes, the Bulls swept the Miami Heat in the first round and that was impressive. But they are now finding out that losing that final regular season game to New Jersey will come back to haunt them.

The Bulls could be cruising like the Cavaliers are with the No. 2 seed – the one they all but handed Cleveland with that Jersey loss. Chicago is now seeing why the Cavaliers are excited about not having to face Detroit until the Conference finals.

The Pistons are your classic example of why experience is far more important than youth and exuberance. The Bulls want to play with emotion and energy. The Pistons are playing with grit and guile and that has led to a complete domination the first two games of this series.

The Pistons just have too many weapons. The Bulls expected Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace and Richard Hamilton to be a problem, but when Tayshaun Prince is pouring in obscene numbers and Chris Webber is running the court like a young Karl Malone, what chance do they have?

Well, there is one way the Bulls can recover and that is to find a way to speed the game up. Detroit had 21 turnovers in Game 2 and the Bulls need to capitalize at home in Game 3.

Kirk Hinrich, who looks extremely lost against Billups, needs to really step up in the next two games and find a way to knock down shots and create some three-point opportunities for Ben Gordon especially.

Tyrus Thomas earned more minutes with his consistent play in Game 2 and along with Ben Wallace could ignite the Bulls speed factor with rebounding and blocked shots.

Bottom line: Bulls lose Game 3, this series is over in four games. The Pistons are closely paying attention to what the Cavaliers are doing to the Nets and they don’t want to be tired when King James comes to town.

Mike D’Antoni is extremely close to a crossroads concerning how to deal with Tim Duncan and who will play the pivotal role in doing it. The answer has to be Kurt Thomas. Although he might slow down the Suns fast-paced attitude, Kurt Thomas gives them the antidote to solving the Spurs ability to slow down the game.

The Suns must face facts and realize the only way they will speed up the game is to get a lead playing at the Spurs pace first. And the only way that will happen is on the defensive end, because the Spurs will run their offense through Duncan every time when he is on the floor.

The reason why the Suns play James Jones and Boris Diaw is that they want to play fast. Well, if those players only produce 7 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in 34 minutes combined in Game 1 the argument could be made that Kurt Thomas should have gotten a bulk of those 34 minutes, instead of only 13. Maybe he could have held Tim Duncan to 25 points and helped negate the 14 offensive rebounds the Spurs had in that game. But most importantly, he could have defended him one-on-one, thus taking away key three-point shots made by Robert Horry and Michael Finley – who by the way cannot and will not put the ball on the floor to create anything. So those two players only contribute if the Suns do help out on Duncan and give them open standstill shots. Also, it will allow Amare Stoudamire, who had 18 rebounds, to dominate the weak-side glass and stay out of foul trouble.

Key for the Suns if they are too win this series… Make Duncan score 50 and don’t allow Finley, Horry and Brent Barry to have an impact on the game. The Suns have too many offensive weapons to allow Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to beat them alone. Phoenix will win this series in six games if Thomas is allowed to be a factor.

I saw this coming, but I did not think it would happen. I thought the inexperience of the Warriors would not allow them to pull one the greatest upsets ever in the NBA. When I saw the way the playoff ladder was shaping up the last two weeks of the season with Golden State and the Clippers fighting for the eighth seed, I thought “This is not fair.” Here you have a club in the Clippers that made the semifinals last year with the same identical team and the Warriors who also underachieved early, but were playing the best basketball in the NBA to end the season.

The Mavericks really set themselves up by trying to avoid playing the Warriors in the playoffs by basically throwing a game away at the end of the regular season, hoping that they would move up to the seventh spot. Avery Johnson sent a message to the Warriors and his team by sitting Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse in that key game for Golden State.

When the Warriors clinched the eighth seed, they entered the series with the psychological edge over the first seed – a team that won 67 games.

Here is why the Warriors had that edge and I wrote it a few months ago when I said the Suns were a better team than the Mavericks…

The Mavericks are a jump-shooting team with no inside scoring whatsoever. I have never seen a team win a title that had no inside-presence scoring. That’s why the Heat figured them out last year and eventually won four straight to get the title. They just took away their ability to make jump shots.

The Mavericks top four players are all jump shooters. Nowitzki, Howard, Stackhouse and Jason Terry get the majority of shot attempts and most come from 15 feet. The reason it has worked the last two years is because DeSagana Diop and Erick Dampier provided very good interior defense and offensive rebounding – thus giving a very good shooting team more opportunities.

The reason the Mavericks were so dominant this year is because they used their shooters differently than, for example, the Suns or Warriors. They used them in a half-court slow-down pace with one-on-one clearouts, two-man games and post-ups around the free throw line.

This allowed them to play non-scorers like Diop, Dampier and Greg Buckner, who would not have survived in an uptempo game. Thus we have the defensive and rebound presence.

This system was great against 27 teams during the regular season, but not so much against Phoenix and Golden State.

Those two teams force the tempo and play small with serious inside-the-paint scoring.

Avery Johnson changed his lineup and went small to start the series and was criticized – which I thought was unfair. He did the right thing, but realized something he already knew… His small guys could not compete with Golden State’s.

The Warriors not only have shooters, but their shooters are multi-faceted and that is something the Mavericks could not deal with.

Stephen Jackson, Baron Davis, Jason Richardson, Monta Ellis and Mickael Pietrus can all shoot from the perimeter, drive to the basket and post you up inside. That advantage and the Mavericks inability to post the smallish Warriors inside caused this massive breakdown.

So how do you fix the Mavericks?

Ask Mark Cuban again if he misses Steve Nash. A pass-first point guard who can score is what the Mavericks need. They waste too much time and energy getting off shots. A guard that can get Nowitzki and Howard wide open shots without having to bang and dribble would help. Terry and Devin Harris are off guards and always will be.

They also need to find a post player that can defend and rebound, but also with a good post-up game to command a double team every now and then. Having an enforcer that can score on the other side would do wonders for Nowitzki.

The Mavericks will see how Utah takes advantage of the smaller Warriors inside players with Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur and forces Don Nelson to play Andris Biedrins and maybe even Adonal Foyle – especially if Al Harrington continues to be the weak link as he was in the Dallas series.

(Utah in seven, but I am pulling for the Warriors).

The Bulls flat out embarrassed the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs. When the Bulls lost to the Nets to end the season and thus put themselves up against the Heat and the Pistons instead of the Wizards and the Nets or Raptors, I looked at it as a huge mistake. But the Bulls honestly looked like they lost on purpose to the Nets so they could play the Heat in the first round.

They clearly humiliated the defending champions. But when you look a little deeper… Could you really be surprised?

The Heat came into this season still celebrating last year. They reminded me of a free agent who just got paid and said “Wow, it’s over; I can rest now.” Jerome James of the Knicks comes to mind.

The Heat forgot how hard it took them to win their first NBA title. I wonder if they remembered how bad it looked being down 0-2 to the Mavericks last year in the Finals and on the way to being down 0-3 until Dwyane Wade went ballistic.

The Heat players talked about unity and effort. They talked about hunger and respect, but yet the effort they had for representing a champion the following year was disrespectful. The Heat did not represent a true champion the way multiple champions did – like the Lakers, Celtics, Pistons, Rockets and Bulls of past years.

That’s why I respect those past teams so much – because they could have laid down or become satisfied, but the hunger remained. They wanted more.

I am sure most critics will point the finger at Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade, but that would be wrong. They are not to blame for this meltdown. It was the players around them that let Miami down.

Let me explain why.

When I played with the Rockets in the 1996-97 season, we were preparing to go against the Utah Jazz for the Western Conference championship. We had a players-only meeting to air out some feelings and strategy and when it came time for me to say something, I laid it out like this…

I pointed at Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler and said, “If we are waiting for these two to carry us to the Finals, then we might possibly fail.” I went on to say that it was wrong to expect two players that have already accomplished the feat to do it again.

I then pointed to Charles Barkley and every other player in the room that had not won a title or was a role player on a title team. I said, “This is on us, not them. They have won already and if they do not win another, they have succeeded and lived up to their star status.”

Then I said that we, on the other hand, would just become players who failed to win a championship. I said that we had to prove to them that we wanted it badly and that we were willing to add everything and then some to help them reach the level to carry us to a championship and only then would I expect those two to climb to the level that we expected of them.

We failed that year, but I can honestly say every player on that Rocket team made every effort to make things easier on our stars.

I wonder if Shaq and Wade feel like their supporting cast let them down, because they did not reach the level of consistency they had last year.

Key players like Udonis Haslem, Antoine Walker, James Posey, Gary Payton and Jason Williams, who played a role in the title last season, were non-factors in this series.

The Heat organization suspended Walker and Posey earlier in the year for being out of shape and that was the first sign of the meltdown. The Heat should have known that they went to war with players that have fought for many years and probably should have looked to go with a younger nucleus this season, but Pat Riley is a very loyal coach and I suspect he felt the mistake in not going younger once training camp started and he noticed players like Walker and Payton had aged even more.

Maybe that’s why Riley decided to leave the team for surgery, but sending a message before he left by suspending Walker and Posey.

The only Heat role player that played with passion this season was Alonzo Mourning. He was the single reason why the Heat stayed competitive while Shaq was out with injury. It was not surprising that Mourning played well despite winning his first championship. After having a kidney transplant, he will never take anything for granted the rest of his life. I guess it was fitting that Mourning was the only role player to stand tall in the final game by scoring 14 points.

I will excuse Gary Payton as well because at his age and the minutes he has played in his career. He really struggled to maintain any consistency this year.

The Heat will undoubtedly be a different team around Shaq and Wade next season and if Riley can pick up a key free agent or two, things could change again for the better next season. But until then, Miami will have to suffer through the embarrassment of being swept in the first round.